Given that "one of the most fundamental obstacles to
social order and peace has been the nature of males," (1) masculinity's
relevance to the topic of violence would seem self-evident.
Nevertheless, despite the rapid expansion of criminal justice history,
masculinity has tended—with some exceptions—to either be ignored or
viewed rather simplistically. Furthermore, gendered analyses of
Victorian violence have largely focused on constructions of dutiful
femininity that excused men's "disciplinary" violence and an all-male
judiciary that stood idly by or even actively supported male household
dominance. In Men of Blood, Martin Wiener adds not only a great
deal of new information but also a much needed conceptual subtlety to
our understandings of violence, gender and the law.

Wiener offers a detailed analysis of legal and newspaper evidence
without losing sight of wider-ranging social issues. He examines cases
of serious violent crime (mainly homicide and rape), links them to
constructions of gender and locates a decisive shift in attitudes toward
male violence. As a central theme, Wiener emphasizes a
"reconstruction of gender" (hitherto "unappreciated" in criminal justice
history): women came to be seen as more moral and vulnerable while
men were perceived as "more dangerous, more than ever in need of
external disciplines and, most of all, self-discipline" (3). This
emphasis on the interrelationship between masculinity and femininity
continues throughout the book.

An introduction and first chapter usefully summarize the relevant
historical background: a general decline in the acceptability of cruelty
and violence, an overall expansion in the scope of the criminal law,
improving medical knowledge and an intensification of state policing.
Particular attention is given to advancing legislative strictures on
violence and a "sea change" in attitudes toward gender. The former
limited the customary tolerance of violent behavior; the latter meant that
"the nineteenth-century criminal courts—in spite of their all-male
composition—focused more and more on men" (38). The second
chapter focuses on male-on-male violence, exploring the world of male
dueling and fist-fighting. While upper-class dueling had become rare by
the 1840s, highly ritualized forms of working-class fighting continued
throughout the century. The drive to end the tradition of public fighting
was blunted by ambivalent (or even positive) attitudes toward it.
Although vivid and insightful, this chapter's focus
[End Page 266]
on men as both
offenders and victims marks a relatively brief interlude: the remainder
of the work concentrates on Victorian views of men's violence against
women.

Rape trials are considered in chapter three, which sees an increasing
willingness to treat rape as violence and punish men for perpetrating it.
In particular, those women who could prove their good character began
to receive far more protection from the state. Chapter four points to
increasing differences in the treatment of male and female killers: as
men faced "hardening attitudes," there was a "fading of the powerful
fears and horror earlier evoked by female killers" (123). Both of these
changing attitudes had an impact on judicial practice. As homicidal
women tended to be treated more leniently (whether through being
convicted of lesser offences or declared insane), homicidal men had a
narrowing range of excuses to legitimate their violence and faced
increasingly harsh sentences upon conviction. This was particularly true
of wife killing, a crime which nonetheless—unlike many other kinds of
violence—proved "resistant to the nineteenth-century 'civilizing
offensive'" (146). The next three chapters deal with the defenses
offered by wife-killers, focusing on female victims' provocations
(whether harsh words, drunkenness or adultery) and changes in the legal
view of criminal intent. The scope of provocation was narrowed and
that of intention was widened: thus, violent men confronted not only
growing social disapproval but also increasing levels of legal
responsibility for fatal violence against women.

Men of Blood addresses a plethora of conceptual issues
regarding masculinity, violence and the criminal justice system, and
only a few can be mentioned here. While emphasizing men's destructive
potential, Wiener also points to men's experiences as victims of other
men, a topic that has only begun to be explored. Since violence against
other men was different (in terms of both motive and form) than that
against women, this cross-victim approach helps to draw out the
complexities of gendered violence. Other emphases are equally thought
provoking. English judges—often depicted as either cold-hearted noose
enthusiasts or stern defenders of patriarchy (or, indeed, as both)—are
presented as having been often in advance of public opinion with regard
to harshly punishing violence against women. Indeed, the most
important factor in delaying judicial initiatives to protect women seems
to have been public sympathies with violent men. Wiener draws
attention to an important tension between an increasing desire to hold
perpetrators responsible and a concern about subjecting them to
overly-harsh penalties.

At the heart of Wiener's analysis, though, is more than simply a
detailed consideration of violent men: he uses the topic of violence to
examine the broader world of Victorian gender roles. For instance,
many studies have explored (and decried) the catalogue of new
restrictions associated with idealized notions of domesticity faced by
Victorian women. Wiener looks at Victorianism from another
perspective: increasingly strict notions of self-control were largely
aimed at men and these, ultimately, benefited women. Here, Wiener's
study can be seen as a sustained (if understated) critique of some aspects
of feminist history. While the Victorian emphasis on chastity and
domesticity clearly placed particular burdens on women, with regard to
the crime of rape "the new higher valuation of female character
weakened class barriers, as well as enhancing the claims of
[End Page 267]
women of
all ages to protection against bodily assault" (92). Whether as victim or
perpetrator, women received more understanding and sympathy from a
justice system that nevertheless remained male dominated. In balancing
that argument with evidence of continuing hypocrisy and tendencies
toward blaming the victim, this intricate study is far more convincing
than the long-established image of cross-class male collusion to oppress
women, providing a subtle and enlightening analysis of gender and its
utility in understanding not only the victims but also the perpetrators of
violence.

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